🏳️‍🌈✝️ High Risk of Heart and Kidney Disease Are Linked Among Those With HIV

Researchers found that those with a greater than 5 percent five-year risk of either condition also had a high risk of the other.

November 27, 2017


____________________________________________________________________________________ 

HIV-positive people who have a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) also have a high risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and vice versa.

Publishing their findings in PLOS Medicine, researchers conducted an analysis of data from the international D:A:D study to assess CVD and CKD risk among people with HIV. An individual was considered at high risk for either condition if risk calculators predicted they had a greater than 5 percent five-year risk of either.

CKD was defined as having an eGFR below 60.

A total of 27,215 individuals living with HIV were followed for a cumulative 202,034 years. Seventy-four percent of them were male, they had a median age of 42 and the median baseline year of entry into the study was 2005.

The risk calculators estimated that 3,560 (13.1 percent) of the participants were at high risk for CVD, 4,996 (18.4 percent) were at high risk for CKD and 1,585 (5.8 percent) were at high risk for both.

Those at high risk for CVD had a 5.63-fold increased risk of a CKD-related health event compared with those at low risk for CVD. Those at high risk for CKD had a 1.31-fold increased risk in CVD-related health risks compared with those at low risk.

Researchers concluded that CVD and CKD be assessed together in those with HIV and that clinicians address modifiable risks for both in people living with the virus.

To read the study, click here.

To read a press release about the study, click here.

  

Read more articles from POZ, here